The Tech Villain & TikTok Call Outs
5 in 5 - Brave & Heart HeartBeat #142 ❤️
This week we’re doing a bit of a deep dive on the current state of the tech world, are they the new villains? The movies seem to think so. From the general megalomaniac behaviour of certain tech CEOs making them pretty easy to parody, to their currently terrible record of being terrible bosses right now, the signs are also pointing to yes.
We also see some of last week’s tips on how to fight sexism in the workplace unfortunately having to be put into action, and an update on the good, the bad and the ugly of the YouTube rich and famous.
Let’s get into it.
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#1 - The Tech Bro Supervillian
As movie and tech enthusiasts, this article from Wired caught our attention this week. It draws attention to the newest villain trope – the Tech Bro.
If you’ve seen the new “Knives Out” sequel “Glass Onion” – which if you haven’t, you should – the unlikeable main character is a classic tech bro in a grey t shirt, working on a dangerous hydrogen-based fuel. Presented as a genius while slowly making you question, “is he actually an idiot?”, his character has been compared to Elon Musk (no comment… except okay fine we can’t resist noting that he was booed for a continuous ten minutes on stage recently at a Dave Chapelle comedy show).
Recent kids' movie “Ron Gone Wrong” also features a tech villain vs. a tech “goodie” - described by the writer says the two sides of Mark Zuckerberg. The animated comedy features robot companions for kids that help them make friends via algorithm, but when one malfunctions dark Mark Z wants to use the bots to spy on kids for profit. Sounds familiar….
So are tech bros the new villains in our lives? As in 90s movies the “villain” was usually some sort of mega capitalist i.e. a department store mogul (think You’ve Got Mail, every Christmas movie ever) the tech bro trope reflects the anxieties of our time. Another interesting comparison is with the “mad scientist” trope. Now, scientists are the good guys in the fight against climate change, while tech CEO’s are out here making themselves look bad pretty much every day.
The writers of “Ron Gone Wrong” say they wrote the film due to concerns about their kids and the online space, noting that films are a reflection of our cultural worries. And to be honest, there are a couple of things to be worried about…
#2 - Big Tech Are Terrible At Firing
Continuing the theme of tech villainy, despite doing a LOT of layoffs in the past year, big tech have been continuously awful at firing people.
Examples abound. A Twitter employee was notified by the fact that their password was changed remotely and their company Mac was locked with a mysterious grey screen. One Google employee discovered they’d been let go when the light on the card reader outside their office in New York flashed red instead of green, while another eight year Google veteran was simply logged out of all of his devices.
Despite having laid off thousands of workers over the past few months in an industry-wide downsizing, they have handled it horribly almost without fail, and with what Wired describes as “casual brutality” and “tone deaf displays” – picture the private Sting concert held by Microsoft the night before they fired ten thousand people.
Employees have expressed confusion at the callousness of the firings in comparison to the culture they’ve come to know, however, Susan Schurman, a professor of labor studies and employment relations, argues that the gap between how tech companies portray themselves and how they act was always there. She describes herself as shocked, but not surprised, noting also that attitudes towards staff have worsened during and since the pandemic, with more distance allowing workers to be more easily dehumanised.
Schurman notes that big tech fooled us all into thinking they regarded their workers as human beings, but when push comes to shove and times get tough, the boss is back.
#3 - The End Of The Tech Office Perk?
For most of us, working in tech brings to mind the famous Google slide, fridges stocked with protein bars and various other special treatments to show what special little soldiers with special skills tech workers are.
For example, until last March, Meta employees in the new York office didn’t have to worry about food, transport, or even laundry – they were shuttled to and from work, had a free dinner service – even to go – and got their laundry picked up.
With cost-cutting measures entering the chat however, all that changed. They sneakily made the evening dinner service after the last shuttle left, forcing staff to choose one or the other. Employees themselves have admitted that they’ve become entitled, but that doesn’t mean these changes won’t come as a shock, changing the current status quo.
With perks such as state of the art gyms, private concerts and even on site sushi bars having become synonymous with tech jobs – cutting these out of the deal is going to come as a shock. The message being sent is – tech employees, you’re no longer a big deal.
While it makes economic sense in a time off huge layoffs, and it can sound frivolous, taking away free lattes and fitness classes can still impact the remaining workers – it send the message that the perks weren’t offered unconditionally. Even in a different economic climate, companies risk losing the war on talent if they suddenly show a tough side which is completely at odds with the cultural paradise they appeared to be.
#4 - A Masterclass in Calling Out Sexism…
...Even if she REALLY shouldn’t have had to do this.
Whitney Sharpe, a recruiting and staffing professional from Boston, called out three potential clients, all male, after one of them accidentally shared their screen – which included a group chat in which they were discussing her looks, referring to her as an “f***ing bombshell”.
She recorded herself confronting the men and posted it to TikTok to show others how it’s done, stating “First of all, if we’re going to continue working together, I want to work with a woman sales representative because I don’t want to have to see locker room talk about myself when you’re sharing screens”.
The completely insufficient response from the men in question was heard as “apologies for that”, followed up by the client’s vice president of sales emailing Sharpe to inform her that the company didn’t have any women “skilled enough” to work with Sharp.
Luckily for Sharpe, her company backed her up, agreeing that this potential client should not and would not become a client.
Her parting words are that the company should perhaps consider not hiring misogynistic *insert curse word here* to represent their company out in the field, if not at the very least “smarter people who know how to share their screens”. Preach.
#5 - YouTubers Gone Wild – The Good, The Bad & The Weird
The golden age of YouTube is, if not coming to an end, certainly slowing down, however the millionaires made by YouTube are definitely still at large, and still getting richer. What are they up to now?
Mr Beast, probably the world’s richest YouTuber, with a net worth of 105 million dollars, and a YouTube income of around 26 million per year, at around 333,000 dollars a DAY, has diversified his actions like many YouTubers, with a burger chain that attracts hordes of screaming fans in the way that only a YouTuber can, but his most popular videos right now include him either “sharing” or “flaunting” his wealth- depending on what side you fall on.
His most recent video made headlines as he “cured blindness” by paying for the cataract removal surgeries of one thousand people in the US who couldn’t have afforded the procedure alone. In the same video he gave away cash prizes up to 50,000 dollars and a Tesla. Great, right? Well, according to Twitter, wrong.
He’s been accused of performative philanthropy, and while he is giving away money for views, he’s also literally giving away money. Let’s let the guy live a little. When we compare him to other YouTubers for example, the guy’s a saint.
We’ve covered the “good”, now for an example of the “bad” we can look to a popular French YouTuber who was recently arrested linked to accusations of sexual misconduct and grooming of minors via his channel. YouTube have effectively “taken him off the air” by demonetising his videos – which poses some interesting questions about the rights to your videos and who decides if YouTubers can make money from their content. However, at least YouTube HAVE taken a stance, unlike the rest of the community he was once part of.
For the “weird” let’s look at one of the trashiest of the YouTubers, Logan Paul, once featured in this newsletter for buying a very expensive NFT which is not worth a whopping ten dollars. He’s hit marketing gold with a new energy drink called Prime, which is literally sailing off the shelves – so much so that there are actual scalpers selling it for hundreds of pounds in the UK, yes, an energy drink. If it works, it works, I guess.
Brave & Heart over and out.
Bonus
AI Can Do Everything…
Except hands.
AI can replicate lifelike images of basically anything and anyone, except apparently hands.
AI’s attempts at designing hands are truly like something out of a nightmare.
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